European Press Review

The battle to contain the forest fires in southern France preoccupies the country's press.

Several Russian newspapers focus on the release of a helicopter crew held in Sudan.

A court ruling reprimanding the police for disrespecting parliamentary immunity hits the headlines in Germany.

And on the eve of a national holiday, one Genevan paper asks what it is to be Swiss.

French fire fighting

France's Le Monde focuses on the difficult task facing fire-fighters in south-eastern France to bring forest fires under control.

The paper says Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy was told by fire chiefs at a crisis meeting that "there is no precedent in recorded French fire-fighting history" for such fierce and extensive blazes.

Le Figaro takes the same line. It warns that continuing hot weather and strong winds are expected to complicate the work of the fire-fighters even further.

It also highlights the efforts taken by the government to crack down on arsonists. But it adds that the authorities are keen to discourage "any kind of collective psychosis causing people to see pyromaniacs everywhere".

Suspicions

Aiding and abetting rebels is an unforgivable thing Moskovskiy Komsomolets

Several Russian papers view the state of relations between Moscow and Khartoum following the release of a Russian helicopter crew, which had been held by Sudanese troops for over a week.

"The crew has been freed, but suspicions remain" is the headline in the mass-circulation Moskovskiy Komsomolets. Despite the release, the paper believes there are still suspicions in Sudan that the crew was involved in rebel operations in the west of the country.

"Our crew may have blundered into a scandal without realising it," the paper says, adding: "After all, aiding and abetting rebels is an unforgivable thing."

The broadsheet Nezavisimaya Gazeta also believes that the incident has provoked tensions between the two countries.

"Whereas the Russian Foreign Ministry describes this development as 'release', its Sudanese counterpart calls it the handover of detainees for deportation," it says.

German democracy

German papers welcome a ruling by the country's highest court that the police behaved unlawfully when it searched the office of a parliamentary deputy's assistant.

The assistant was suspected of leaking confidential information from a court case's prosecution documents.

The immunity of MPs against prosecution is part of the ground rules of every democracy Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

Die Welt is in no doubt that the court made the right decision.

"The idea that sensitive information received by deputies from citizens could be made public as a result of investigations on behalf of the public prosecutor, would have undermined trust in politicians even more than is already the case."

This view is echoed in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

"The immunity of members of parliament against prosecution is part of the ground rules of every democracy," it says in a front-page commentary.

Swiss citizenship

On the eve of 1 August national holiday, Geneva's Le Temps asks :"What, exactly, does it mean to be Swiss?," as the debate on the naturalisation of immigrants in the country continues.

Switzerland has the strictest nationality rules in Europe - you have to have lived in the country at least 12 years, have a clean criminal record, adequate command of the local language and pass the scrutiny of the town or village council.

Is naturalisation a mere "administrative formality", the paper asks, "or a veritable act of adoption stemming from a mutual desire to espouse shared values?"

The paper says that only the second option "can maintain the enduring miracle of the survival of a Confederation whose citizens speak different languages and have different cultural affinities".

The European press review is compiled by BBC Monitoring from internet editions of the main European newspapers and some early printed editions.